Teen shot in crowd at Sarasota park was a bystander, detective says. Shooter still wanted.
A Sarasota man is wanted on murder charges in a shooting last month in Ackmerman Park that killed an 18-year-old.
Detectives believe the teen was likely a bystander among 40 to 50 people were at the park, and not the target of the shooting.
Just before 11 p.m. Dec. 29, deputies and paramedics were called to Ackerman Park, 400 Apex Road, to reports of a shooting.
Before they arrived, several people at the park found the victim and put him in their car trying to rush him to the hospital.
But at the urging of a 911 dispatcher, they pulled over nearby in the parking lot of the Fruitville Public Library and waited for paramedics. Paramedics began treating the victim, but he died shortly thereafter.
Nyquan Nathaniel “PK” Priester, 20, has a warrant for his arrest on charges of second-degree murder and discharging a firearm from a vehicle within 1,000 feet of any person. He is said to be about 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighs about 145 pounds and has black hair and brown eyes.
Also charged in the case is Kalvion Turner, 20, of Sarasota. After a judge signed an arrest warrant Thursday, Turner surrendered at the sheriff’s office headquarters.
Turner is charged with principal to second-degree murder and is being held without bond at the Sarasota County jail.
The teen was not the target of the shooting, according to a probable cause affidavit written by Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office Detective Chad McDonald.
“I have probable cause to believe Kalvion Turner had a conscious intent that the shooting would occur, and did some act or said some words to Nyquan Nathaniel Priester which were intended to and did cause, encourage, assist or advise him to actually commit the crime, ” the detective wrote.
Turner was believed to have “beef” with another man who was at the park that day, in the immediate area of where the victim was, witnesses told detectives. One witness shared a text conversation he had with Turner immediately after the shots were fired.
“Play too much,” the witness said to Turner.
Turner responded with laughing emojis, and the witness texted, “Scared the (expletive) outta everyone.”
“Warning shots,” Turner answered.
But the witness told Turner not to come back to the park because somebody had been hit.
“Who got hit? Dat Wasn’t en me dat was my dawg dat let them shots off,” Turner wrote back.
The man believed to have been the target of the shooting spoke with detectives and said he thought his “beef” with Turner was over. But then that day he became uncomfortable when he saw Turner — known to carry a gun — with a fanny pack across his shoulder. He felt threatened, he told detectives, as Turner kept patting the bag.
Hours after the shooting, Turner went to the sheriff’s office accompanied by an attorney who told detectives, “He’s not the one who pulled the trigger.”
When detectives asked for Turner’s phone, the attorney told them Turner didn’t have it with him. When detectives got the phone and searched it, the location data revealed Turner did have the phone when he first came to their office. Detectives also discovered information related to the shooting had been deleted.
Detectives spoke with the driver and front passenger in the car that Turner and Priester were in when the shots were fired. Both named Priester as the shooter, and the driver said that just before firing the gun, Priester said, “I’m fixin’ to air this (expletive) out. I’m fixin’ to shoot at people.”
The murder weapon was never found, but two hours after the shooting, Turner, Priester and the other passenger drove to a park near Sarasota Bay where Priester is believed to have gotten rid of the gun.
Anyone with any information about this case can call the Sarasota Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Section at 941-861-4900. The investigation is ongoing.
